Now this came as a surprise. Being interested in JMS and other cults, I was drawn to read the following interview with a young North Korean refugee who fled the North, risking his life for freedom. Half way through reading the interview I realized the "Christian" group that rescued him from China was the JMS cult. I remember that moment very clearly as I spat out my coffee. And then the strange tale he was telling all made sense. This isn't just an interview with a North Korean refugee; it is also an interview with a former JMS member, for when he arrived in South Korea, his first stop was Wolmyong Dong and the Twilight Zone that is the JMS Cult:

From Page 363:

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When we decided to come to South Korea, it was a priest (Korean) we asked for help…The reason he had helped bring me to the South in the first place was because he wanted me to follow in his steps and become a priest just like him. His goal had been to use me as a missionary in an effort to spread the gospel to other North Koreans at the time of reunification. The priest didn’t know anything about the official government program for North Korans, and so I stayed in a country Church for one month, living essentially, in total ignorance of everything. This all took place in Geumsan, a small city that is famous for Ginseng.Note: Guemsan was where I spent my first year in Korea. It's the closest town to Wolmyong Dong and consequently has the highest concentration of JMS cultists in the entire universe. I spat out the coffee I was drinking when I read the word "Guemsan". I kid you not.

Actually, to be completely honest, I came to South Korea under false pretenses; I arrived here under someone else’s name on a Chinese tourist visa. When Chinese people turn 19, the government issues them with a certificate of residence that is similar to a copy of one’s family registry in Korea. In China, however there isn’t a picture attached to it, so I could forge a certificate quite easily. All I had to do was have the father call me “son” and the whole thing was done without much trouble. I put my picture on that person’s certificate and borrowed his name. That’s part of the reason that younger people can come to the South so easily with a Chinese tourist visa, and that is why I had to leave after only being in Geumsan for one month – I had to renew my visa.Note: He was going to return to China on his fake Chinese passport?!

The priest wanted me to switch my visa so that I would be an exchange student under his tutelage, but he found he couldn’t do that, because it turned out that Korea was having major problems with illegal Chinese migrant workers at the time. The South Korean Government started threatening the priest I was with saying that, if I wasn’t sent back to China, he himself would be denied entry to China in the future and possibly denied entry into other countries as well. The priest got confused and didn’t know what to do, so he called the National Intelligence Service (NHS) and told them he had a North Korean with him, not a Chinese boy. After a brief investigation, I was sent to Hanawon, the government-operated center to assist North Koreans in their readjustment to Korean society.Note: I don't believe the "priest" was ignorant at all. It seems he informed the Korea government only when he himself was in danger of being exposed and his "missionary" activities curtailed.

I ended up staying at Hanwon for exactly 3 months, after which I returned to Geumsan to see the priest once again. It was in Geumsan that I went back to a regular school for the first time in years…

At that time I was learning mostly with my priest. He was of the belief that Korean society had taken a wrong turn somewhere along the road and that Koreans were no longer in tune with the ways of the Bible. As a result, I spent all of my time with the priest and was unable to get out of the countryside.

The Priest told me that I had to pray alongside the Holy Spirit every morning before going to school because he was worried I would become too taken with capitalism and its destructive culture. So, I prayed alongside the Holy Spirit everyday at dawn and every evening upon returning home from school. I didn’t even go to an arcade, an Internet café, or a singing room one single time during that period in Geumsan.Note: Dawn, and pre-dawn services offer JMS opportunities to promote sleep deprivation. Members are "encouraged" to get up earlier and earlier - as early as 2 am.

I was eventually allowed a cell phone as a means of the priest checking up on me and knowing where I was at all times.

"I'll get you out of China if you become a priest." That's a nice example of a conditional "favor." Although of course I have to say he was much much much better off living in South Korea as a guest of the JMS cult that living in China secretly. It's great they got him out. I'm just sicked that the cult only did it to increase its membership.

In China, the kid and his family lived with the very real fear of being deported back to North Korea and all that that entails. Does this priest help the kid out of a desire to see him live a free life? No. The family was desperate, and so was the kid. The priest took advantage of that.

Once in Korea, the kid moved to Geumsan and undoubtedly stayed at Wolmyong Dong, the home of the JMS cult. Ironic that he mentions that throughout his time in Geumsan, he never went to a PC room and never went to a singing room.

His access to the internet was as hindered in the South as it had been in the North. That wasn't an attempt to protect him from the evils of South Korean society. More likely it was an attempt to stop him finding out the head of his "church" was at the time wanted for rape and from finding out he hadn't escaped to freedom at all, he had merely swapped cult leaders, granted to one much less likely to kill him.

Also hindered were his chances of getting to know people outside the cult.Since he was initially living on a Chinese passport, I bet the JMS priest told him to keep his North Korean nationality to himself. Nice bit of deception there: a North Korean hiding his nationality in South Korea, where refugees are welcomed and provided with government assistance. And they were going to send him back to China to get a new visa where he risked being taken back to North Korea and imprisonment and likely torture. That's about as despicable as it gets.

I had to laugh at the "dangers of capitalism" comment. At the cult's base, I saw miniature toy soccer balls for sale (autographed by their God to increase the price) tons of CDs of the leader's speeches and songs by the cult's musician (who don't get a cent of the sales), and lots of pictures of the leader. Spring water was also for sale. It apparently has "healing" properties. It costs a bit more than your bottle from 7-11, but that's to be expected because your 7-11 water doesn't cure cancer.

All these help to make the guy at the top of the food chain a multi-millionaire. And this kid was warned of the “evils of capitalism?”

The "priest" wanted the kid to apply for a Chinese student visa. In a country where North Korean refugees are welcomed (granted there is discrimination) and given citizenship. This JMS priest wanted him to maintain the charade of his Chinese nationality. The attempt to get a Chinese student visa was nothing short of an attempt to keep this kid under the influence of the cult.

4:00 am prayer service equals sleep deprivation. The difference being the manipulation came with a smile instead of a rifle; just as effective, but admittedly not nearly as obvious and life threatening.

I wonder how many other North Koreans are living at Wolmyoung Dong, denied the very freedoms they were hoping to gain, living a life not too dissimilar from that which they wanted to escape from? Lesser of two evils certainly, but still, they deserve better.

I contacted the author and we shared a few interesting emails. He talked to the guy and showed him the anti-JMS Korean site. He had left JMS by then and confirmed that the group was indeed JMS